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Using Names

US Department of Health and Human Services attorney Dean Landis has sent a letter to the managing editor of OMICSonline, Venkatesh Yanamadala, alleging that the company has infringed HHS trademarks, ScienceInsider reports.

According to the letter obtained by ScienceInsider, HHS says the Omics website uses the National Institute of Health, PubMed, and other HHS names in "an erroneous and/or misleading manner." For example, Landis writes that a FAQ at the site says that articles published in Omics journals will be submitted to PubMed, while PubMed does not accept any articles from that publishing company. (A previous exchange from the fall indicated that the National Library of Medicine has "serious concerns" about Omics' publishing practices.) In addition, the letter alleges that the company improperly uses the names of some NIH and former NIH employees.

Landis asks for those and other mentions of NIH and PubMed to be removed.

ScienceInsider adds that Omics has made changes to its website, and that it forwarded emails showing thatsome of the employees agreed to be Omics editors. One, Raymond Dionne, is identified as Omics' current editor-in-chief, though Dionne says that he agreed to be an editor when he retired from NIH in a few weeks and that his NIH affiliation was not to be used.

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